An Assessment of Pre-deployment Training for Army Nurses and Medics

Mithun R Suresh, Krystal K Valdez-Delgado, Amanda M Staudt, Jennifer D Trevino 1, Elizabeth A Mann-Salinas 2, Christopher A VanFosson 1

Mil Med. 2020 Oct 3;usaa291. doi: 10.1093/milmed/usaa291. Online ahead of print

Introduction: Although military nurses and medics have important roles in caring for combat casualties, no standardized pre-deployment training curriculum exists for those in the Army. A large-scale, survey-based evaluation of pre-deployment training would help to understand its current state and identify areas for improvement. The purpose of this study was to survey Army nurses and medics to describe their pre-deployment training.

Materials and methods: Using the Intelink.gov platform, a web-based survey was sent by e-mail to Army nurses and medics from the active and reserve components who deployed since 2001. The survey consisted of questions asking about pre-deployment training from their most recent deployment experience. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the results, and free text comments were also captured.

Results: There were 682 respondents: 246 (36.1%) nurses and 436 (63.9%) medics. Most of the nurses (n = 132, 53.7%) and medics (n = 298, 68.3%) reported that they were evaluated for clinical competency before deployment. Common courses and topics included Tactical Combat Casualty Care, Advanced Cardiac Life Support, cultural awareness, and trauma care. When asked about the quality of their pre-deployment training, most nurses (n = 186; 75.6%) and medics (n = 359; 82.3%) indicated that their training was adequate or better. Nearly all nurses and medics reported being moderately confident or better (nurses n = 225; 91.5% and medics n = 399; 91.5%) and moderately prepared or better (nurses n = 223; 90.7% and medics n = 404; 92.7%) in their ability to provide combat casualty care. When asked if they participated in a team-based evaluation of clinical competence, many nurses (n = 121, 49.2%) and medics (n = 180, 41.3%) reported not attending a team training program.

Conclusions: Most nurse and medic respondents were evaluated for clinical competency before deployment, and they attended a variety of courses that covered many topics. Importantly, most nurses and medics were satisfied with the quality of their training, and they felt confident and prepared to provide care. Although these are encouraging findings, they must be interpreted within the context of self-report, survey-based assessments, and the low response rate. Although these limitations and weaknesses of our study limit the generalizability of our results, this study attempts to address a critical knowledge gap regarding pre-deployment training of military nurses and medics. Our results may be used as a basis for conducting additional studies to gather more information on the state of pre-deployment training for nurses and medics. These studies will hopefully have a higher response rate and better quantify how many individuals received any form of pre-deployment training. Additionally, our recommendations regarding pre-deployment training that we derived from the study results may be helpful to military leadership.